# How do I remove these items from the startup program list? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 4, 2002, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-remove-these-items-from-the-startup-program-list/117291 "2002-07-04T02:27:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2002, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-remove-these-items-from-the-startup-program-list/117291/1 "2002-07-04T02:27:47Z")
PC Magazine’s Startup Cop 1.01 - See [http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-2344-5943130.html?tag=pop](http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-2344-5943130.html?tag=pop) ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2002, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-remove-these-items-from-the-startup-program-list/117291/2 "2002-07-04T02:30:09Z")
Geez, my first answer to a non-existent post! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2002, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-remove-these-items-from-the-startup-program-list/117291/3 "2002-07-04T03:13:33Z")
You don’t need a program to kill any programs that get into your startup menu. Just go to run…type in msconfig…hit ok. Go to the startup tab on the box that comes up and unclick anything you don’t want to start. Next time you reboot your computer they won’t start. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2002, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-remove-these-items-from-the-startup-program-list/117291/4 "2002-07-04T03:39:32Z")
I’ll save you my entire OP, suffice to say I had memory problems, and found a bunch of programs that were starting up upon startup. The weird thing is, I remember unchecking them before, but they got rechecked somehow. So I want to know if I can delete them from the list, so there is no chance of them somehow getting checked again. To summerise: They are unchecked, but I don’t want them listed in the list. Can I do that? ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2002, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-remove-these-items-from-the-startup-program-list/117291/5 "2002-07-04T05:04:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bouv \* > \*\*To summerise: They are unchecked, but I don’t want them listed in the list. Can I do that? \*\* Yes. First back up your registry with **scanregw**. Then run **regedit** and navigate to **HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion**. Deleting items from the **Run** , **Run-** , **RunOnce** , **RunOnceEx** , **RunServices** , **RunServices-** , and **RunServicesOnce** keys will remove them from the list in **msconfig**. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2002, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-remove-these-items-from-the-startup-program-list/117291/6 "2002-07-04T15:02:20Z")
OK, I used the program **Duckster** suggested, and that removes the offending entries for me, which makes me happy since i would probably fuck something up if I did it myself. Anyways, new problem: I edited what programs run on startup to a small list of things I need, and one I don’t (AIM) But when I run MemMAX (a cool memory application) it says I have less than 10% of my physicsal memory free. 😕 It has a feature that lets me optimize my memory usage, and I use it, and it then frees up 60% or so of my memory. My question (if you can’t guess by now): Why is my starting memory so low, and how come it so easily gets raised back up? ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2002, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-remove-these-items-from-the-startup-program-list/117291/7 "2002-07-04T15:56:00Z")
If you want to be _positive_ a program does not run, just hide it by changing the extension. Rename [program.com](http://program.com) to program.com.hide and windows will not find it. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2002, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-remove-these-items-from-the-startup-program-list/117291/8 "2002-07-04T16:06:08Z")
Oh boy…bigger problems arise…now, me memory slowly starts disapearring as I keep my PC on. It goes down even when I don’t open up any new programs. I optimize it to almost 70%, and then see it go down to 69%, 68% etc…It gets down to about 20%. I think something might seriously be wrong here… ---
**Author:** ![aahala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@aahala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aahala)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2002, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-remove-these-items-from-the-startup-program-list/117291/9 "2002-07-04T16:12:28Z")
After a computer virus crash, I now have a window - C/Program - open everytime I start the machine, how to I stop this. After the crash, the computer whiz I used moved everything he could save into a folder. I tried moving a few files into another folder and at some point this unwanted window starting appearing.